Update: Groves Confirmed By Senate

Update: Just saw on C-SPAN that Groves has in fact been confirmed by the Senate. I watched a portion of the vote and heard all "ayes" with the exception of Sen. Vitter, who voted "No". More on the nomination tomorrow on Nextgov.

A press assistant with Harry Reid just confirmed to me that the Senate will vote on the nomination of Robert Groves to be Census Director at 5:30 p.m. today after Reid filed a motion for cloture on Friday. Groves' nomination has been held up for weeks by anonymous GOP Senators; Roll Call reported (subscription required) last week that the holds came from Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and David Vitter, R-La.

The vote will be on the Senate floor and broadcast by C-SPAN, so it will be interesting to see if Shelby and Vitter express their reasons for holding up Groves' nomination. Over the past few weeks I've spoken to a number of people who follow the Census Bureau closely and no one seemed to know who was behind the holds or what their reasons were. The most likely cause is Groves' expertise in the area of statistical sampling, which is a hot-button issue when it comes to the Census Bureau and Congress. Groves said at his confirmation hearing that he has no plans to use sampling for either the 2010 or 2020 decennial counts.

As most of our readers know, the 2010 census has been plagued by delays and management issues for several years and promises to be the most expensive count in our nation's history. The bureau's reversal on its plan to use handheld computers to conduct nonresponse follow-up has cost taxpayers billions and eliminated any potential flexibility in the remaining schedule, which is why delaying Groves' confirmation any longer could jeopardize the accuracy of the count. Hopefully if he is confirmed this afternoon, Groves will be able to stop the merry-go-round among the bureau's senior leadership and deliver on his promise to take a more active role in managing information technology investments.